I am really keen to start introducing more Web 2.0 tools in my Math classroom and hope that this course might be the push that I need. Particularly interested in using blogs, screencasts etc to get my students writing and communicating about math.

Math Review (a course for entering freshmen who are not ready for Intermediate Algebra)

I would like to make my worksheet-heavy course more interactive by using online tools. I've incorporated cooperative learning strategies into my class periods, and I've used our university online system to give quizzes and receive evaluations, but I haven't actually created a course or unit completely online. I started to do so with Moodle and PortaPortal, but then flaked out.

I've been working hard to incorporate Assessment For Learning principles in my math courses but the one that I'm really struggling with is peer assessment. My courses are in Moodle and students are at a distance but working synchronously.

One of the topics that I'm really interested in is ways of combining/blending the use of physical and virtual manipulatives in teaching math. I've also been working more on media to create problems in a visual format. Want to work more on getting students to express their learning using web 2.0 tools in math: blogs, glogs, screenrecording, etc.

A recent one from Ben Blum-Smith from his Research in Practice blog:
"They need problems where they actually don’t know the truth and have to figure it out for themselves."
- in talking about proofs, but applicable more broadly

For the past two years I have been teaching Algebra 1 Inclusion. With few exceptions students are well below grade level in their mathematical ability.

My goal is to learn how to use Moodle to develop a comprehensive, stand alone, PA Standards Aligned, Algebra 1 course which students can complete at their own pace.

My intent is for each concept to be developed using UbD principles in conjunction with Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Leaning principles and includes animations, gizzmos, and virtual manipulatives so as to address various learning modalities.

I also want to include requisite scaffolding so that students who are well below grade level can build their knowledge so as to be successful in learning the ALGEBRAIC concepts.

Thus, students who successfully complete this course will have LEARNED real algebra.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.Albert Einstein

Colleen Young,
Kent UK

Mathematics from age 11 to 18

I have learned so much through the resources shared by members of the Diigo groups I belong to, this seems a chance for further collaboration and sharing

From John von Neumann:
“In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.”